The Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the 55th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It consisted of two semi-finals on 25 and 27 May and a final on 29 May 2010, held at the Telenor Arena in Oslo, Norway, and presented by Erik Solbakken, Nadia Hasnaoui, and Haddy N'jie. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NRK), which staged the event after winning the for with the song "Fairytale" by Alexander Rybak. It was the contest hosted the latest, tying with the .
Broadcasters from thirty-nine countries took part in the contest, with returning after a one-year absence. Meanwhile, , the , , and ceased their participation, mainly due to the 2008 financial crisis. originally announced its non-participation, but was later confirmed as among the participants by the EBU.
The winner was with the song "Satellite", performed by Lena and written by Julie Frost and John Gordon. The song won both the jury vote and televote and was Germany's second victory in the contest, following . It was also its first win as a unified country, and the first win for one of the "Big Four" countries since the rule's introduction in . , , , and rounded out the top five. Romania, finishing third, equalled its best result from , while further down the table, Georgia achieved its best result to date, finishing ninth. For the first time since the introduction of semi-finals in , Sweden failed to qualify for the final.
Prior to the contest, the EBU announced that the voting system used in the semi-finals would change from previous years to balance jury voting with televoting. A return of accompaniment by orchestra was also proposed, but ultimately did not occur. The 2008 financial crisis affected how the contest was run, with NRK being forced to sell its broadcasting rights for the 2010 FIFA World Cup to TV 2 and Viasat in order to finance the event.
Location Venue
Norwegian kroner (€17 million) was originally the venue budget agreed upon by Trond Giske and Hans-Tore Bjerkaas, respectively the Norwegian Minister for Culture and the head of (NRK).
At a press conference in Oslo on 27 May 2009, it was announced that the show was to be held in the Oslo metropolitan area. NRK argued that Oslo was the only city with the required capacity, venues, and infrastructure to hold the show. On 3 July 2009, it was decided that the venue would be the newly constructed Telenor Arena, in the municipality of Bærum neighbouring Oslo.
The Oslo Spektrum (host venue in ) was ruled out to host the contest due to its smaller size and capacity, as was Vallhall Arena in Oslo and the Vikingskipet in Hamar. NRK had decided they wanted to take the contest back to the basics and after the contest in 2009, where LEDs were widely used, they used none. The 2010 was also produced on a considerably lower budget than the year before.
Participants
A total of 39 countries confirmed their participation for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010, including , which returned to the contest after its absence in .
The Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT) initially announced its non-participation after failing to achieve the necessary funds of 300,000 litas (€90,000) for participation. The EBU later confirmed that would indeed participate in Oslo. Funding was eventually given by Lithuanian company Teo LT, which allowed LRT to participate.
Several of the performing artists had previously represented the same country in past editions. Niamh Kavanagh had won the contest for . Hera Björk had provided backing vocals for and . Kristján Gíslason, backing singer for Hera Björk, had represented as member of Two Tricky. In addition, Feminnem representing Croatia, had represented .
was represented by the group SunStroke Project, of which saxophonist Sergey Stepanov became an Internet meme as the "Epic Sax Guy", after performing their entry "Run Away" at the final of the contest.
+ Eurovision Song Contest 2010 participants Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Juliana Pasha "It's All About You" English AMPTV Eva Rivas "Apricot Stone" English İTV Safura "Drip Drop" English BTRC 3+2 Robert Wells "Butterflies" English VRT Tom Dice "Me and My Guitar" English BHRT Vukašin Brajić "Thunder and Lightning" English Dino Šaran BNT Miro "" () Bulgarian, English HRT Feminnem "" Croatian CyBC Jon Lilygreen and the Islanders "Life Looks Better in Spring" English DR Chanée and N'evergreen "In a Moment like This" English ERR Malcolm Lincoln "Siren" English Robin Juhkental YLE Kuunkuiskaajat "" Finnish Timo Kiiskinen Jessy Matador "" French GPB Sofia Nizharadze "Shine" English NDR Lena "Satellite" English ERT Giorgos Alkaios and Friends "" () Greek RÚV Hera Björk "" English RTÉ Niamh Kavanagh "It's for You" English IBA Harel Skaat "" () Hebrew LTV Aisha "What For?" English LRT InCulto "Eastern European Funk" English InCulto MRT Gjoko Taneski "" () Macedonian Kristijan Gabrovski PBS Thea Garrett "My Dream" English TRM SunStroke Project and Olia Tira "Run Away" English TROS Sieneke "" Dutch Pierre Kartner NRK Didrik Solli-Tangen "My Heart Is Yours" English TVP Marcin Mroziński "" English, Polish RTP Filipa Azevedo "" Portuguese Augusto Madureira TVR Paula Seling and Ovi "Playing with Fire" English Ovidiu Cernăuțeanu RTR Peter Nalitch and Friends "Lost and Forgotten" English Peter Nalitch RTS Milan Stanković "" () Serbian STV Kristína "" Slovak RTVSLO Ansambel Žlindra and Kalamari "" Slovene RTVE Daniel Diges "" Spanish SVT Anna Bergendahl "This Is My Life" English SRG SSR Michael von der Heide "" French TRT Manga "We Could Be the Same" English NTU Alyosha "Sweet People" English BBC Josh Dubovie "That Sounds Good to Me" English
Other countries Active EBU members The EBU announced that they would work harder to bring back , , and to the 2010 contest. In September 2009 the EBU's director Bjørn Erichsen stated during an EBU press conference that "Austria [would] be back", and that the EBU "[had] reasons to believe that Luxembourg and Monaco" were also to participate; "now we are only missing Italy". In late October 2009, the 2010 contest project manager Jon Ola Sand stated that "countries such as Monaco and Luxembourg [had] indicated that they [wished] to participate in next year's competition in Norway". However, the representatives of the broadcasters of Austria, Monaco, and Luxembourg denied participation in the 2010 contest. Wolfgang Lorenz, the programme director of the Austrian broadcaster (ORF), informed that they would not take part stating that the contest had been "ruined by the regulations". Télé Monte Carlo (TMC) also declared that they would not be returning for the 2010 edition, mainly due to a lack of finances to send a Monegasque entry. The RTL Group announced that they were having serious discussions regarding a possible comeback for for the first time since , but later confirmed that they would not be present for the 2010 contest either. (SMRTV) also considered returning in 2010 for ; however, after deliberations with Italian artists, including Italian sister duo Paola & Chiara, they informed to withhold returning after failing to receive funding from the Sammarinnese parliament or sponsors.
EBU had talks to Liechtenstein's only broadcaster 1FLTV for them to join the EBU, and become a part of the Eurovision Song Contest. 1FLTV's programme director Peter Kölbel had confirmed interest in their participation as soon as full EBU membership is granted, which may have happened in December 2009. Thus they were getting ready to debut in 2010, considering a national final concept similar to the German version of the Idol series – (DSDS). In November 1FLTV decided against applying for EBU membership in December for financial reasons, ruling out a debut at the 2010 contest.
From July to December 2009, four countries who participated in announced their non-participation in 2010: , the , , and .
Format Visual design
NRK announced the theme art, slogan and design for the contest on 4 December 2009, during the Host City Insignia Exchange between the Mayors of Moscow, Oslo and Bærum, marking the official kick-off of the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 season. The theme art, a series of intersecting circles, was selected to "represent gathering people and the diversity of emotions surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest." In addition to the base colour of white, the logo was created in black, gold, and pink. A preview of the stage design was released on 6 May 2010, featuring no LED screens, opting instead for various other lighting techniques.
Postcards Unlike the 2009 and the 2008 postcards, the 2010 postcards were based in simplicity but also included an innovative idea, they are shown like they could be seen right in the venue, over the crowd's heads.
The basic synopsis of the postcards is a numerous group of little golden balls (the theme of the ESC 2010) forms the shape of each country. Then, they move and form a screen where we can see a pre-recorded video of a little crowd from in a city of the country (usually the capital) about to perform supporting and cheering their act. After that, a few seconds of the performer of the country getting ready in the stage are shown; and then, the balls form the flag of the country supported.
In the part of the shape of the country, there were little discrepancies: some countries' shapes, such as those for Serbia, Israel, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, were not completely shown, due to territorial or border disputes in those areas.
Presenters
NRK announced the hosts of the contest on 10 March 2010. Those chosen were Erik Solbakken, Haddy Jatou N'jie, and Nadia Hasnaoui. Solbakken and N'jie opened the three shows, introduced the artists, and reported from the green room during the voting, with Hasnaoui presenting the voting section and scoreboard announcements. This was the second Eurovision event that Hasnaoui had co-hosted, after doing so at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004, in Lillehammer. The trio guided the audience and viewers through the night in English, French, and Norwegian. This was the second time that more than two hosts were presenting the shows, after the .
Voting system
On 11 October 2009, the EBU announced that the format of the semi-finals was to be changed so that the results would be determined by a combination of 50% national jury and 50% televoting, making it more consistent with the final. Each country's votes were determined by combining the jury votes and the televoting results; the countries with the top ten highest points in each semi-final then qualify to participate in the final of the contest. This replaces the semi-final format used in the and contests in which the countries with the top nine highest points from the televoting results in each semi-final qualified for the final. The tenth semi-final place was then given to the country with the highest number of points from the jury's votes which had not already qualified for the final from the televoting results. On 26 October 2009, the EBU announced that the voting would be open throughout the competition and would conclude 15 minutes after the end of the very last song.
Possible return of the orchestra A number of fans began a campaign on social networking site Facebook for the return of an orchestra to the contest in Oslo, for the first time since . An orchestra, which had been used since the first contest in 1956, was dropped after the 1998 contest due to rapid developments in music technology, which made backing tracks more useful. Jan Fredrik Heyerdahl of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra said that they were interested in participating in the 2010 contest if the EBU and NRK approved the return of an orchestra. However, no such change to the contest had been approved.
Semi-final allocation draw